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The purpose of the investigation was to comprehensively assess working conditions and their impact on the health of female workers engaged in the manufacture of present-day paper wallpaper. A complex of sanitary-and-hygienic, clinical-and-physiological, sociomedical, and statistical studies was used to tackle the tasks set in the investigation. Stage 1 made a sanitary-and-hygienic assessment of industrial factors (microclimate, noise, vibration, the content of toxicants and dust) in the workplaces of female workers from the papering shops using an Elita rolling automatic machine. The following stage analyzed morbidity among the workers and identified a number of functional parameters. A combination of poor factors characterizing their parameters and exceeding the sanitary standards influenced on the workers engaged in the manufacture of paper wallpaper. The leading harmful industrial factors are heating microclimate, production noise, and the working air level of harmful chemical substances in the working air. The production process under such microclimatic conditions causes the body's thermal changes characterized by the senses of total warm discomfort and the tension of thermoregulatory mechanisms, as confirmed by weighed mean skin temperature studies and decreased working capacity. The working conditions in the manufacture of wallpaper products are shown to result in an increase in female morbidity.

The paper presents a comprehensive sanitary - hygienic assessment of working conditions for female workers in dairy enterprises located in different climatic regions. On the basis of this assessment, a set of preventive measures aimed at improvement of the working conditions and the health state offemale workers may be developed and implemented.

The objective of the present paper was to review international and national standards for the criteria of assessment of the noise-induced occupational loss of hearing. The importance of healthy hearing for the occupational safety is emphasized which implies the necessity of the more rigorous criteria for hearing conservation in the workers engaged in the noisy technological environment compared with those for the general population. A rationale for the development of the standard program of hearing conservation in the workers engaged in the noisy technological environment is proposed including hygienic norms and rules or national state standards.

The paper presents results of a study of the functional state of major workers of the refinery "Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat" when exposed to hazardous working conditions. The results have shown adverse effects of chemical factors of working environment and the intensity of the labor process on the functional state of the body of workers that shows a violation of efficiency and adaptability of the their organism to the working conditions.

The paper provides the results of assessment of prior and posterior occupational risks and those of questionnaire analysis in foundry shop workers from machinery enterprises. According to the data of attestation of job places, the working conditions of major foundry occupations were ascertained to correspond to class 3, grades 1 to 3. The prior risk for occupational respiratory diseases (RD) was defined as moderate whereas the posterior risk was high. According to the results of a questionnaire survey, more than half of the workers sought medical advice for bronchopulmonary pathology. Determination of whether there is, in terms of the etiological share, a cause-and-effect relationship between RDs and working conditions has shown that the occupation was highly responsible, which suggests that harmful industrial factors make a considerable contribution to the development of RDs in the workers of the enterprises under study.

The paper raises the question as to whether essential hypertension should be included into a list of occupational diseases (intellectual, sensory, and emotional workloads and working conditions) in engine crew members. In the engine crew members of the South-Eastern Railway, the cases and days lost because of illness and temporary disability are higher than those in the whole railway. 32% of the engine drivers (assistants) are followed up for diagnosed essential hypertension. Hypertension (49.7%) is the main reason for suspending engine crew members from work as evidenced by train pre-trip medical examinations. The working conditions (noise, infrasound, mcroclimate) in train engineer's cabs do not meet the sanitary requirements; in this connection the occupational disease sensorineural hearing loss is also registered.

The paper assesses a dust factor and establishes its etiological proportion in the development of respiratory diseases in workers from mining enterprises in different regions of Russia. Service-length groups at risk for upper tract diseases, criteria for early diagnosis, and a risk for occupational respiratory tract diseases were identified in miners. Trends in humoral factors of immunity were revealed in the workers without bronchopulmonary abnormalities. The efficiency of a scientifically grounded management system for an occupational risk of respiratory tract diseases was evaluated in miners.

The paper assesses the traditional and current methods in the organization of providing workers with medical and prophylactic products. It raises the question as to the value of milk as a detoxicant, an antidote, that aids in eliminating harmful substances from the organism of workers who are in contact with noxious occupational factors. Consideration of this issue may be presently regarded as actually urgent and timely since present-day developments in preventive nutrition of the population provide a possibility of using foods (beverages) that are of great rational benefit to the health of the persons exposed to poor industrial factors.

The paper deals with the problem of optimization of working conditions of engine drivers in the control cabs of up-to-date locomotives, by toughening the sanitary-and-hygienic requirements for the levels of bad industrial factors. The authors associate the optimization of working conditions with the necessity of strengthening the reliability of their driving activity due to the increasing rail movement speeds and the transfer to one-person rolling-stock operation, and other factors.

This paper presents data on the prevalence of occupational diseases of ENT organs dominated by occupational neurosensory deafness (NSD). The prevalence of occupational NSD is highest among the personnel of civilian aviation and the workers employed in mining ore industry. The author emphasizes the utmost importance of timely and high-accuracy diagnostics of ENT organ pathology during prophylactic medical examinations of people exposed to occupational hazards. Information on the state of upper respiratory tracts affected by industrial aerosols that cause irritation and allergic reactions is considered. Special attention is given to the development of methods for diagnosis of occupational oncological diseases and voice disturbances in the voice-and-speech profession.

The objective of the present paper is to review the main stages of investigations into the mechanisms of occupational loss of hearing in the light personnel of civilian aviation starting from the early period in the development of aviation (the first decades of the XXth century) up to the present time. Much attention is given to clinical and audiologic studies involving the flight personnel, elaboration of guidelines and instructions on elucidation, diagnosis, and expert examination of occupational deafness in the personnel of civilian aviation. Prospects for handling the problem in this country are discussed.

To study the specific features of the burnout syndrome (BOS) in communicative professional workers, the authors examined 138 communicative workers (94 females and 44 males); of them there were 51 physical education masters, 43 elementary school teachers, 20 consulting shop assistants, and 24 legal officers. BOS was detected in more than two thirds of elementary school teachers and more than a third of physical education masters, consulting shop assistants, legal officers, and practitioners. The completely developed BOS was most frequently encountered in elementary school teachers (in every four individuals), slightly less frequently in practitioners, consulting shop assistants, and legal officers (in every ten persons). The highest BOS levels were observed in elementary school teachers having a service length of less than 5 years and in legal officers and practitioners having a service length of more than 10 years. The paper provides evidence for the expediency of complex preventive measures for the representatives of these professions and for psychological support of their professional activities.

The paper deals with nutrition and heath in Kuzbass miners. Studies were conducted in the Berezovskaya and Percomayskaya mines in the town of Berezovsk, Kemerovo Region. The actual nutrition was studied in 500 underground workers, by using a 24-hour reproduction method. The macrostructure of food intake by Kuzbass miners and the density of their daily rations were not shown to be in compliance with hygienic recommendations. This creates prerequisites for inadequate intake of nutrients and biologically active substances. Risks of inadequate provision with essential nutrients and biologically active substances are defined. It is necessary to develop miners' nutrition optimizing measures including hygienic nutrition education.

The paper evaluates the health status of shoe factory workers. Diseases of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, liver, gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, and thyroid are prominent in the structure of morbidity in the workers.

The paper presents review data on the hygienic problems in the turnover of fertilizers. Agrochemicals are shown to be an additional source of the emission of a number of pollutants into the environment (ambient air, soil, water sources, and foodstuffs). There is evidence that it is important to update environmental hygiene and occupational medicine and to elaborate preventive and health-improving measures when fertilizers and other agrochemicals are manufactured and applied.

The paper presents the basic results of 75-year studies of the Yekaterinburg Medical Research Center to evaluate the effect of asbestos on the health status of working people and the population, which have yielded basic hygienic, sanitary, clinical, epidemiological, and experimental data on the effect of asbestos on the health status of working people and the population and led to the conclusion that the center's experience in studying the problems may serve as the real basis for substantiating the safe permissible controlled use of chrysotile asbestos.

The paper presents data on multienvironmental pollution in the area exposed to emission from an aluminum works and on the reproductive function of women living in the areas where these enterprises are located. Reconstruction of an Urals aluminum plant (SUAL-UAZ) has improved the environment, reducing the incidence of pregnancy and labor abnormalities and improving the neonatal infants' health.

The paper discusses the present working conditions on railway transport, by using the results of employee rating, characterizes railway services showing the greatest magnitude of adverse and dangerous factors of working conditions. It also characterizes occupational morbidity in railway transport workers over 5 years (1999-2003) and by hazards problems of occupational morbidity and by basic services: locomotive, wagon, and track ones. The paper also presents the rates of disability due to occupational diseases, characterizes the priorities of prevention of occupational diseases on the railway transport.

There has been recently a significant rise in gastroenterological morbidity in Russia. These diseases much more frequently occur in workers engaged in chemical industry, which is likely to be associated with the effects of toxic chemicals. The paper identifies risk factors of these diseases and assesses the value of each of them. By keeping this in mind, a procedure is proposed for organization of these workers' examination. There is clinical evidence for its effectiveness in implementing diagnostic measures for early detection of diseases of the digestive system.

This paper describes the results of the study into the prevalence of chronic venous diseases among industrial workers of Moscow. It has been established that chronic venous diseases are fairly prevalent among industrial workers. They affect the people of both sexes (67.5% of women and 50.4% of men), varying age and occupation. With age their incidence rises. The most significant risk factors of the onset of chronic venous diseases include hereditary predisposition, pregnancy and birth, overweight, and intake of hormonal contraceptives. The study has demonstrated that in most cases, such patients are not rendered medical assistance.

The paper presents the data of clinical and hygienic studies of railway cashiers' health. The main deleterious factors of their working conditions are poor microclimatic conditions, bacterial inoculation of the working area air, a forced working posture, and a high vocal load under mental stress. There is a significant prevalence of nervous, obstetric, gynecological, thyroid, and vocal diseases and oral dysbacteriosis among the workers of this professional group. There is evidence for the necessity of including the job of a railway cashier into the List of decreed contingents for periodical medical examinations.

The paper outlines the main constituents of occupational risk in railway workers, which are based on the sanitary and biomedical criteria of injury safety. Sociomedical aspects of the incidence of railway occupational diseases and injuries are discussed. A list of major occupational factors and causes that determine a high occupational risk in railway workers is given.

The paper provides a scientific rationale for that it is necessary to improve the existing state statistic records, such as [symbol: see text] No. 125/Y "Occupational Disease or Intoxication Recording Schedule". The document fails to obtain "accumulated" data on the incidence of occupational diseases (OD), changes in the health status and working ability, to make an analysis of relationships between the working conditions and the development of OD. The "Schedule" has been improved, which records data on a patient rather than a diagnosis. The schedule is a final recording document, a sectorial register of railway occupational diseases, and it is of departmental character.

The paper shows the specific features of development of occupational diseases associated with the classes of working conditions by the degree of hazard and risk. It provides a scientifically founded evidence for that the indicators of a potential risk of working conditions should be included into the methodology of assessment of a professional risk.

The paper presents the findings of the first Russian study of possible cancer risks in printing workers. For the first time, the historical cohort study included women. The cohort comprised 1,553 males and 3,473 females who were followed up for 15 years (01/01/79-12/31/93). A significant increase in the rates of death from pancreatic cancer was registered among males employed as compositors exposed to inorganic lead dust and vapors. Raised mortality from malignancies of the stomach urinary bladder, skin melanoma and mesothelioma was identified in females exposed to a PAU-containing oil paint aerosol and paper dust. Significant death risks from esophageal and ovarian malignancies due to exposure to glue vapors and paper dust were observed in bookbinders.

The article covers general principles of health care for workers in various industries associated with contact to dust containing asbestos. The authors present main requirements of legal papers basing concepts that determine role of employers, trade unions, workers and medical officers in creation and maintenance of safe work conditions, in establishment of prophylactic, therapeutic and rehabilitation measures.

Misdetection of occupational diseases in railway workers is discussed. The reason is that medical staff has poor knowledge of occupational diseases and patients with their signs and symptoms are not all registered. The paper gives scientific rationale for creating a register of occupational diseases in the system of enterprises subordinate to the Ministry of Railways.

The paper reports the results of a simultaneous study of muscular performance (MP) and main risk factors (RF) of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in 466 locomotive team members aged 30-49 free of IHD symptoms. A negative relationship has been established between MP and systolic, diastolic pressure, body mass. A 4-6-year follow-up of MP and IHD RF showed that MP improvement was associated with a trend to improvement in RF, while MP worsening entailed greater risk of IHD, especially in a group of 30-39-year-olds.

The paper, summarizing the experience of day hospital performance at the ambulatory centre of occupational rehabilitation in Gorky, provides data on patients requiring the services of day hospitals, average length of stay and conditions; advisability of introducing this form of medical services for patients at ambulatory rehabilitation centres is indicated.